dcrc

Prof Brian Draper

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Qualifications

MB BS (Hons) 1978 (UNSW), FRANZCP 1985, MD 2002 (UNSW)

Position

Deputy Centre Director, DCRC - Assessment and Better Care

First Appointment

School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales

Profile

Brian Draper is a Conjoint Professor in the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has been the Assistant Director of the Academic Department for Old Age Psychiatry at Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals, Sydney since 1992. He is Chair of the Australian Government’s Psychogeriatric Care Expert Reference Group and Past Chair of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age, RANZCP. He is Deputy Director of the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre – Assessment and Better Care based at UNSW and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Neurosciences Research Australia. Dr Draper is the Chair of the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) BPSD Taskforce and a Board Member of IPA. He is Deputy Editor of the IPA online website and an Associate Editor for the journal Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. He is a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel for Alzheimer's Disease International, a Scientific Advisor for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and a member of the NSW Suicide Prevention Ministerial Advisory Committee. He has served on local, state and national committees for mental health services and provided consultations on psychogeriatric services in Australia and overseas. He is an assessor for many national and international journals, publishers and granting bodies. Dr Draper has had a long term involvement with vocational training in psychiatry. He was the foundation Chair of the Committee for Advanced Training in Psychiatry of Old Age, RANZCP and was responsible for developing its curriculum and training program. He was also the foundation Psychiatry Clinical Chair for the NSW Institute of Medical Education and Training and foundation Chair of the NSW Psychiatry Network Oversight Committee. Dr Draper has published over 200 scientific articles and book chapters (with over 1300 citations) on topics that include psychogeriatric service delivery, suicidal behaviour in old age, clinical aspects of dementia care, carer stress, depression in old age, and professional development. He was the lead author of a 2004 WHO Health Evidence Network synthesis of the effectiveness of mental health service delivery to older people. He published a book for the general public titled ‘Dealing with Dementia’ (2004), revised as ‘Understanding Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias’ (2011) and has co-edited two academic books on Geriatric Consultation Liaison Psychiatry (2001) and Psychogeriatric Service Delivery: an International Perspective (2005). Currently he is involved as a chief investigator in a number of externally funded major collaborative studies that are examining aspects of the assessment and care of dementia and cognitive disorders in various populations including young onset dementia, Indigenous people, acute hospitals, substance abuse, and mild cognitive disorders.

Projects

• A Pilot Study to Determine the Prevalence of Younger Onset Dementia in Sydney
• Dementia Literacy in Italian, Greek and Chinese Australians
• Improvement of GP use of screening for cognitive impairment
• An expert meeting on strategic directions in CALD dementia research in Australia
• The DVA Study
• Computer-assisted clinical guidelines for the management of aggression in dementia
• The INSPIRED Study - Improving Service Provision in Early Onset Dementia
• Indigenous People with Dementia
• Managing Substance Abuse in the Over 65s: What? Where? And How?
• Dementia transitions in care
• Investigating language changes associated with mild cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly CALD bilinguals
• Pilot and evaluation of 'Coping with care-giving' - an intervention for carers of people living with dementia from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• Cognitive Stimulation Therapy – an Australian adaption
• Improving support for caregivers of people with dementia from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds by strengthening community care services: a randomised controlled trial
• Dementia Services Framework Koori Dementia Care Project